In federal court this morning, prosecutors filed three asset forfeiture lawsuits against properties in Santa Ana where a total of seven marijuana stores are currently operating. Authorities also executed federal search warrants at two of the stores involved in the asset forfeiture actions. Additionally, prosecutors sent warning letters to people associated with 56 other stores not involved in the forfeiture actions. The federal actions involve all known marijuana stores in the City of Santa Ana.

The federal actions in Santa Ana were done in cooperation with the Santa Ana Police Department and the Santa Ana City Attorney’s Office.

The three civil asset forfeiture complaints filed this morning in United States District Court target three properties in Santa Ana where seven marijuana stores are currently operating. The civil lawsuits state: “Under federal law, the distribution of marijuana (a Schedule I controlled substance under Title 21) is prohibited except under
very limited circumstances not applicable here. The government is informed and believes that at all times relevant to this complaint, the operation of the [marijuana stores] on the defendant property was not (and is not) permitted under California law.”

The forfeiture lawsuits allege that the owners of the properties knowingly allowed commercial marijuana stores to operate. The buildings named in the asset forfeiture lawsuits currently house:

• GLC (or the Green Love Collective, currently in a suite that formerly housed a store called Old Remedies) and The Dispensary Store, which are operating in a building at 1638 East 17th Street, a property owned by chiropractor Mark Burcaw, and previously have been the subject of administrative citations issued by the city;

• SoCal Compassion, Club Meds and Well Greenz, which are located in a building at 1651 East Edinger, another building owned by Burcaw, and are illegal marijuana operations that prompted Santa Ana to file a civil lawsuit last year seeking injunctive relief against Burcaw and the three marijuana stores; and

• J Pacific Life (which is located in a suite that formerly housed marijuana stores called Saddleback Meds and The Natural Alternative) and Healing OC, which operate out 1665 East 4th Street and have been the subject of numerous warnings and administrative citations from the City of Santa Ana.

In conjunction with the filing of the asset forfeiture complaints, the United States Attorney’s Office today mailed out letters to the property owners and operators of 56 marijuana stores that are either currently operating or were recently closed in Santa Ana. The warning letters give the operators and landlords 14 days to come into compliance with federal law or risk potential civil or criminal actions.

The Drug Enforcement Administration executed two federal search warrants this morning with the assistance of the Santa Ana Police Department at J Pacific Life and Healing OC.

Today’s enforcement actions in Santa Ana follow similar actions over the past 18 months across the seven-county Central District of California. Starting in October 2011, prosecutors began filing asset forfeiture lawsuits and sending letters to marijuana operations in selected areas in the Central District of California (see, for example,

http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/2012/129.html).

With the lawsuits filed this morning, the United States Attorney’s Office has filed a total of 30 asset forfeiture complaints against properties housing illegal marijuana operations in the district. Eighteen of those actions have been resolved with the closure
of the marijuana stores and consent decrees. In some cases, consent decrees required property owners to disgorge rent payments made by a marijuana store operator, and in all cases the consent decrees required the property owners to agree, among other things, that they would no longer rent to people associated with illegal marijuana
operations or the property would be subject to an immediate forfeiture to the government.

Including today’s efforts in Santa Ana, federal enforcement actions – asset forfeiture lawsuits, warning letters and related activity – have now targeted more than 525 illegal marijuana businesses in the Central District of California. The majority of those businesses previously targeted are now closed, are the subject of eviction
proceedings by landlords, or have been the subject of additional federal enforcement actions.

In October 2011, the four United States Attorneys in California announced the coordinated enforcement actions targeting illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking
(see: http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/2011/144a.html).

The United States Attorney’s Office is working in Santa Ana with the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS – Criminal Investigation, the Santa Ana Police Department and the Santa Ana City Attorney’s Office.
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15 Responses

Just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it should be. No government has the right to tell you what to do with your own bodies (aka victim-less “crimes”). Medical marijuana (“illegal” because the feds can’t profit off of it as much as they profit off of their “campaign contributions” from big companies, mostly Pharmaceutical) has thrived and will continue to thrive in California, and surely we’ll eventually legalize recreational use as well.

Californians love their cannabis, and have since the 1960s and before. No amount of federal intimidation tactics is ever going to change that.

If you read all details, there is a very good chance that within 2-3 weeks all dispensaries in SA will be closed. The illegal drug gangs and cartels are all cheering as they will soon again be the only game in town. Feds are stepping on the will of the people of CA.

As a founding member of the Oath Keepers (“OK”), in my last comments before the council, I have presented to each of you a little booklet containing the Declaration Of Orders We Will Not Obey by the OK.

Not only that you have ignored to read it but you have elected to gravely violate the California’s oath of office, to protect California’s laws, by aiding and abetting the Feds in going after 63 medical marijuana stores.

Once again, I am urging you to adopt the Declaration Of Orders We Will Not Obey for the Council and SAPD.

1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.

2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people

3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.

4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.

8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”

9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.

10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

“When are the people of Santa Ana and the people of the world going to wake up?”……… Hmmmmmm

When the OCCUPIERS substitute the “Liberal Socialism” for “Religion” in Marx’s quote “Religion is the opiate of the masses” without understanding it?

Marx was not saying it was “a legitimate way of escaping a cruel world”.

He was saying it was a cop-out, a means to artificially deaden the pain of existence, rather than facing it directly & striving to overcome. It was an insult.

Furthermore, opium was legal (sort of so is the pot today), but not “socially acceptable”. Opium smokers were regarded in much the same way that we regard alcoholics today.

Lastly, Marx did not actually mention opium anyway. He said opiate (any derivative of opium). Opiates are still used today, and for the same purpose. The best known today would be Morphine (a legal, but restricted painkiller) and the Liberal Socialism.

Marx did not actually mention or care for Opiate Fiala as well.
Mr Anti- Semite half Semite Baby-Mama Hater!
When Fiala smokes a little more, has more Vodka then only then will we have decent conversation.

This is a horrible move by the feds. All these shops card you, you have to be 18 in order to buy cannabis. Users are gonna turn to street dealers. Street dealers don’t card anyone which makes it easier for anyone to get drugs, including minors.